China’s Belt and Road Initiative Needs to be Protected From Terror Threats

Rescuers work at the collapse site where a bus was crushed by an overpass in Zhengzhou, China.(Photo : VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

China has appealed to the international community to help protect key infrastructure within the Belt and Road initiative.

The call was made Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations during a recent UN Security Council debate on how to secure infrastructure against terrorist attacks, China Daily reported.

"China's Belt and Road Initiative takes the interconnection of infrastructure as a priority of cooperation to help countries along the routes improve their infrastructure development," Liu said.

This developed as the UN Security Council on Monday adopted Resolution 2341 (2017) which urged member states to establish measures that would lessen the impact of terrorist attacks on infrastructure facilities.

Liu pointed out that more than 100 countries and international organizations are now part of China's Belt and Road initiative that aims to strengthen cooperation among them in areas such as "intelligence sharing, risk assessment and joint law assessment."

He said these initiatives should be carried out through bilateral and multilateral channels to protect interconnection projects and transboundary infrastructure from terror attacks.

In a statement posted on the UN Security Council website, the 15-member Security Council emphasized that "the need to strengthen efforts to improve the security and protection of particularly vulnerable targets, such as infrastructure and public places."

According to HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd Chief executive officer Mukhtar Hussain, countries such as Malaysia that are strategically located in the heart of Southeast Asia can serve as a gateway to China.

"Since the implementation of the initiative, both countries have reaped the early benefits of economic investment and have pledged to build a stronger all-round strategic partnership in trade, finance, port development and logistics sectors, among others," Hussain said in a statement.

Hussain reported that Malaysia's trade with China for the first 11 months of 2016 has increased by 2.7 percent to RMB 216.27 billion.

The bank executive said that China's Belt and Road initiative would be a boon to the ASEAN, as this will instrumental in addressing the infrastructure gap in the region and boost industrial development.